Sunday 9 February 2020

When shit hits the fan

Its getting a bit scary with this coronavirus infections in Singapore.

Recently the powers that be moved up the response to the outbreak to Orange - which means that we have to be more alert, there are local infections and we need to be more vigilant (see here for the article from our main papers)

We have had this alert before in 2009 when the H1N1 virus was all over the place.

This time though there was mass panic in Singapore.  We had 4.98 million people in 2009, we now have 5.7 close to 6 million.  thats a million or more people crowded on this tiny red dot, which I feel has been a factor that has brought the ugly Singaporean to the surface. People went to supermarkets and started clearing shelves of toilet paper, rice, noodles and whatever else they thought necessary to hoard in times of emergency.  thing is, its not an emergency.

I was at my local supermarket to do my usual Saturday weekly shop, and was gobsmacked at the way people were buying things.  the lines for the checkout stretched to the back of the supermarket, so trying to manoeuvre around the place was difficult with people not moving out of the way, blocking shelves, and generally being a pain in the ass.  The single basked self checkout lane had people with 2 or more baskets which pissed me off even more. They have been shamed on social media as well but they justify their actions as looking after their families in times of troubles......

I have always been in favour of immigrants, I feel that its fine if you want to move here and make a better life for your family but I understand also that when immigrants move to a new country they should learn about the local way of life.  I have seen it in the UK and Australia and can understand the frustration of locals when they see their way of life changing.  No one likes change and no one likes their lives being disrupted.  Why am I talking about immigrants?

Yesterday in the supermarket amid the chaos of people buying and hoarding stuff it became apparent that the ones doing half of the hoarding and buying were the immigrants from China. and to my horror, I felt resentment, anger and wished they would just bloody learn to integrate or go home.
The other half were local Singaporeans who were mainly Chinese.  the Kiasu amongst us (Kiasu explained) were at it again.  Singaporean Kiasuness is legendary, and those that follow the kiasu way of life make things difficult for the rest of us.
Does this make me racist...  I think it does.  am I ashamed?  Yes I am.  How do I change that feeling in me of racism...  I don't know,  as all my life I have had to deal with people look at me and treat me differently, treat me like the odd one out, which should not make me a racist as I have had racism directed at me..

Even in my office, which is majority Chinese,  in a meeting with me there, they will speak in mandarin, totally ignoring the fact that  I dont speak the language
I should have learnt the language you say....maybe, but the stubborn person I am, I think, its not China, speak English! But thats for another post, lets deal with this feeling I have first about when the going gets tough...

People will panic in situations, the ugly side will surface.  Singaporeans have shown that ugly side of their nature.  I want to believe that when the shit hits the fan I can be one of those that does not let racism, intolerance and kiasuism get the better of me.
So far I have let racism seep into my being, I can find a dozen reasons why to justify my feelings, but I wont.. as that will just make my anger and resentment worse.

Stay calm and carry on you say?  I say, learn to live and learn and learn to be tolerant of the chaos and breathe.....because the shit has NOT hit the fan yet...





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